by Shane Spotts · 07/26/10

In what could be considered the most controversial finish in IndyCar history, and definitely the most controversial finish since the 2002 Indianapolis 500, Scott Dixon claims victory in the Honda Indy Edmonton.

After a restart on the 94th lap, Helio Castroneves was leading Will Power, Scott Dixon, and Dario Franchitti into turn 1.  Will Power used his overtake assist to make a move around Helio.  Helio pushed Will a little wide heading through the s-curve, retaining the lead (so he thought), and allowing Dixon get by Power.

Shortly thereafter IndyCar came over Helio’s radio informing him that he had been issued a drive by penalty for blocking.  Helio ignored the penalty and stayed on track.  "I never moved my line. I actually did move him outside. When you go side by side like that with your teammate and they just take it away from you, it's just absurd.", said Castroneves about the controversial call.

What ensued from there can best be described as chaos.

Helio came blasting out of his car heading straight to the scoring stand where he first encountered an IndyCar official.  Helio was pointing and yelling at this official (not involved in the ruling) while continuing to march towards the scoring stand.

At this point IndyCar head of security Charles “I’m a human wall” Burns stepped in and blocked Helio from getting to the stand.  Helio then grabbed Charles by the shirt collar and began yelling some more.  It’s a good thing for Helio that Charles appeared more amused than upset.

Helio had this to say about his actions: "Obviously, I disagree with the decisions made by the race officials on the last restart in today's race, but there is no excuse for my actions after the checkered flag. I apologize to my team, our sponsors, the fans and the entire IZOD IndyCar Series community for my behavior. My actions were totally wrong and I acted inappropriately to some people who are my friends and people I respect very much. Obviously, I am a very emotional person and today I let my emotions get the better of me and I'm very sorry for that."

Creating a bit more confusion in the whole situation was the fact that IndyCar put the on-track call under review after the race.  Ultimately the ruling stood and Scott Dixon was named the winner of the Honda Indy Edmonton, and Scott was not apologizing for that: 

"Brian always says that if you're blocking going into any corner and you are on the right side - especially into Turn 1, you're going to get a penalty. We get told every week, so you could see something was going to happen. We had a great run with the Target car and kept it in a typical line. It was a tough day. The Target car was pretty loose. I can't believe that we won."

One other question that could come out of this is how Helio will take to teammate Power’s comments after the race?  Power could have played good teammate and deflected questions about whether he has blocked, but instead he had this to say: "I got a run on him and he blocked me. I would say a black flag is a pretty harsh penalty, but it is what it is. It was just one of those racing things. When you're leading on the last restart you want to keep the lead."

Ultimately these comments won't likely cause any stir at Team Penske, they are too strong and too stable of a team to be rattled by something like this.  But, it's probably fair to say Roger would rather not have his teammates throw each other under the bus.

Mario Romancini out for the rest of the year?

Mario Romancini may have participated in his last race of the season.  Before the race Mario tweeted something to the effect of, “due to funding issues this may be my last race of the season.  I hope to be back racing soon.”  After the race Mario had this to say:

"I am very disappointed as everybody knows that this might be my last race because we don't have any sponsors, so I really would like to have had a good result. We had a good pace during the race but unfortunately it's such a bad luck as it is the third race in a row that I can't finish. In Toronto, someone took me out and here I got involved in an accident that I could not avoid, with Tagliani spinning in front of me. Other than that, we had a great weekend and I hope I can be back in the car soon and maybe I can do some more races this year".

Other Notes

• The normally crash happy KV Racing drivers managed to keep it clean in Edmonton and bring all 4 of their cars home in the top ten. 
• Dario Franchitti and Ryan Hunter-Reay kept with mathematical range of Will Power for the Mario Andretti Championship for the top driver on road and street courses, but they are a distant 96 and 102 points behind, respectively.  There are only 2 races remaining in this championship, Mid-Ohio and Sonoma.

Race Results (top ten)

1. Scott Dixon
2. Will Power
3. Dario Franchitti
4. Ryan Briscoe
5. Ryan Hunter-Reay
6. Paul Tracy
7. Mario Moraes
8. EJ Viso
9. Takumo Sato
10. Helio Castroneves

For full race results click here.

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